such as
St. Aubert forebore to reply to, for he knew that his guest had neither
humanity to feel, nor discernment to perceive, what is just.

Madame Quesnel, meanwhile, was expressing to Madame St. Aubert her
astonishment, that she could bear to pass her life in this remote corner
of the world, as she called it, and describing, from a wish, probably,
of exciting envy, the splendour of the balls, banquets, and processions
which had just been given by the court, in honour of the nuptials of the
Duke de Joyeuse with Margaretta of Lorrain, the sister of the Queen. She
described with equal minuteness the magnificence she had seen, and that
from which she had been excluded; while Emily's vivid fancy, as she
listened with the ardent curiosity of youth, heightened the scenes she
heard of; and Madame St. Aubert, looking on her family, felt, as a tear
stole to her eye, that though splendour may grace happiness, virtue only
can bestow it.

'It is now twelve years, St. Aubert,' said M. Quesnel, 'since I
purchased your family estate.'--'Somewhere thereabout,' replied St.
Aubert, suppressing a sigh. 'It is near five years since I have been
there,' resumed Quesnel; 'for Paris and its neighbourhood is the only
place in the world to live in, and I am so immersed in politics, and
have so many affairs of moment on my hands, that I find it difficult
to steal away even for a month or two.' St. Aubert remaining silent, M.
Quesnel proceeded: 'I have sometimes wondered how you, who have lived
in the capital, and have been accustomed to company, can exist
elsewhere;--especially in so remote a country as this, where you can
neither hear nor see any thing, and can in short be scarcely conscious
of life.'

'I live for my family and myself,' said St. Aubert; 'I am now contented
to know only happiness;--formerly I knew life.'

'I mean to expend thirty or forty thousand livres on improvements,' said
M. Quesnel, without seeming to notice the words of St. Aubert; 'for I
design, next summer, to bring here my friends, the Duke de Durefort and
the Marquis Ramont, to pass a month or two with me.' To St. Aubert's
enquiry, as to these intended improvements, he replied, that he should
take down the whole east wing of the chateau, and raise upon the site
a set of stables. 'Then I shall build,' said he, 'a SALLE A MANGER, a
SALON, a SALLE AU COMMUNE, and a number of rooms for servants; for at
present there is not accommodation for a third part of my own pe